Leanne E. Smith
About
Leanne E. Smith joined the faculty in Spring 2007. As a student, she received the Robert H. Wright Alumni Leadership Award and several honors from the English department: Outstanding Graduate Student, the John D. and Dorothy C. Ebbs Fellowship, Outstanding Senior, the Russell Christman Memorial Scholarship, and the Gravely Foundation Award. She was president of the ECU Poetry Forum, English Graduate Student Organization, and ECU Folk & Country Dancers; Production Editor for The Wisteria Review; a DJ/newscaster at WZMB 91.3 FM; and an Orientation Assistant. Before returning to ECU, she was a journalist/photographer with a local-news weekly. As Class Notes Editor for East: The Magazine of East Carolina University, she compiled alumni notes and obituaries. Academically, she is a generalist. She enjoys creative nonfiction; French culture; Shakespeare comedies; Britcoms and classic TV and films; history and travel shows; international food; gardening, photography; and folk music, dance, lore, and culture. She has served as Associate Director of the ECU Poetry Forum, President of the Folk Arts Society of Greenville, fiddle player for the Possum Hoppers, board member of the North Carolina Folklore Society, and Assistant Editor of the North Carolina Folklore Journal. She was named NCFJ Editor in summer 2014. Her photos have appeared as the cover images for Tar River Poetry. She dances with the Green Grass Cloggers, and is writing a book examining the group’s first fifty years.
Education
- B.A. East Carolina University
- M.A. East Carolina University
- M.F.A. Goucher College
Research Interests
- Creative Nonfiction and Literary Journalism
- NC Literature and Culture
- Folklife
Courses Taught
- ENGL 3860: Introduction to Nonfiction Writing
- ENGL 2201: Writing about the Disciplines
- ENGL 1100: Foundations of College Writing
- HNRS 2011 & 2012: Appalachian Culture Seminare
Selected Publications and Presentations
- “Cousins, A Few Times Removed: Eighty Years of Team Clogging’s Family Tree.” Country Dance + Song Online 1 (April 2016).
- ““Floating Dancer: Robert Dotson, the Walking Step, and the Green Grass Cloggers.” Documentary film released February 29, 2016. Directed by Leanne E. Smith. Produced by Leanne E. Smith & M. Chad Smith. Edited by M. Chad Smith & Leanne E. Smith.
- Alfred the Possum: On the Road with the Green Grass Cloggers. Greenville, NC: Pilcrow, Possum & Persimmon, 2015. Written by Leanne E. Smith & Illustrated by Madalyn McLeod.
- “‘All it needs now is eatin’”—Fish Stew and the Washington’s Day Fox Hunt at Albertson, NC.” North Carolina Folklore Journal 60.1-2 (2013): 64-84.
- Encyclopedia Virginia. Entries on Annie Dillard, Emily Tapscott Clark, The Reviewer, and Marshall Fishwick. 2010.
- “Head-to-Toe: Deliberate Dressing and Accentuated Accessories in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Revelation,’ ‘A Late Encounter with the Enemy,’ and ‘Everything That Rises Must Converge.’” Flannery O’Connor Review 6 (2008): 40-55.
- East Carolina University–Off The Record. Pittsburgh: College Prowler, 2007 & 2008.